THE MAGISTER SAGA Vol. 1 Links
In part 2, we will complete Jaggar Kova's character sheet (if you missed part 1, start here). This means we will identify his three background bonds, his background vow, and the inciting incident that leads to his first vow and the beginnings of our adventure together. As with everything we do here, we will use the dice to determine as much of this info as possible.
Let's begin by settling on the three background bonds. It makes sense that a skilled blacksmith would have a local mentor who trained him in the trade. Therefore, the first bond we can mark for Jaggar is this mentor. Let's roll to discover who this will be.
Dice Rolls
The dice have determined that Jaggar's mentor is Sendra Torrens, an aged blacksmith who trained Jaggar in his youth. Sendra helped Jaggar's mother raise him when his father was slain by bandits on the road. Despite her age, Sendra retains much of the strength of her youth and all of her metallurgy skills. She was disfigured in a forge accident, leaving her with a burn scar on the left side of her face.
Dice Rolls
Jaggar's second background bond will be with his mother, Kataka Kova. Kataka has a degenerative disease that causes her bouts of extreme pain and physical weakness, as well as exhaustion. Despite this life of pain and hardship, Kataka remains stoic. She is also a skilled painter.
We learned in part 1 that Jaggar lives in the village of Olgar's Stand, a small settlement beside a saltwater marsh that covers an old battlefield. It makes sense for the final background bond to be his village, where he's lived all of his life.
Dice Rolls
We also determined that Jaggar's father was slain by bandits when we outlined Sendra Torrens's relationship to our character. Now we have determined Jaggar's background vow, using the Action and Theme oracles. As I discussed in Introducing Ironsworn, solo TTRPGs require creative logic to develop the results of the dice rolls. As part of this application of logic, it falls to me, the GM-player, to extrapolate something actionable from these vague terms. Thus, I think Jaggar's background vow is that he does not believe the story of his father's death. He has rejected that knowledge and vowed to find his father, or avenge him if the story of his death indeed proves true.
The final thing we must do to establish Jaggar's narrative is determine his inciting incident. The inciting incident is something that happens at the beginning of the story to provoke the character to swear an Iron Vow and begin their quest. In this case, I believe we can roll for it using the Settlement Trouble Oracle.
Dice Rolls
The dice have decreed that the inciting incident in Jaggar's story is the fall of a leader. I take this to mean that the village chieftain is either killed or taken. Since the Action and Theme Oracles read "preserve" and "war," I think this means that the village has been at war with either a rival village or a group of raiders, and the leadership of the enemy has determined to preserve their war against Olgar's Stand by slaying or capturing the Chieftain. Let's roll to determine whether the enemy is a rival village or raider clan, and whether the Chieftain is kidnapped or killed.
Dice Rolls
The Oracle has spoken. The enemy who is preserving war against Olgar's Stand is a rival village, and they have captured the Chieftain of Olgar's Stand. This means that Jaggar's Iron Vow will involve rescuing the Chieftain or otherwise enacting vengeance on the rival village. Let's roll for the name and description of this rival village.
Dice Rolls
The settlement of Stonetower is located at the north end of the same saltwater marsh that borders Olgar's Stand. The settlement grew up in the shadow of an ancient stone tower. Due to the salt in the soil and the settlement's close proximity to the beach of the Ragged Coast, very little grows there. Perhaps territory with better soil is part of the reason they continue to wage war on Olgar's Stand? Only the dice know.
With that, Jaggar Kova is ready to begin his adventures in the Ironlands. Next time, we start our journey in Session 1! Until then...
RESOURCES
Ironsworn RPG by Shawn Tomkins, available at www.ironswornrpg.com
Iron Journal by Nick Boughton, available at www.nboughton.uk/apps
Ironsworn Lodestar: A Reference Guide for the Ironsworn RPG by Shawn Tomkin, available at DriveThruRPG.com
